TRS Report from Bob Lyons, Trustee (via Marge Sucansky at the IRTA Area 3 Conference)

The average retired teacher in Illinois as of June last year received $54,252, but received little or no social security.  In Fiscal Year 2016, the state contributed $3.742 billion to the TRS fund; for FY 2017, it is $3.986 billion, and for FY 2018 it will be $4.565 billion.  The size of the increase is greater because the TRS Board lowered the expected rate of return from 7.5% to 7.0%, which forces the state to make up the difference going forward.  The difference added $421 million to the state's contribution for next year...  Based on where we were at the end of the year 2016:                                                            FYTD            CYTD         3       5      10        20 years % Return for TRS                           5.01              8.33        5.88   9.53   5.55     7.54 The total number of annuitants is 118,483, which includes retired teachers, survivors, and disabled.  As of December 31, 2016, the total actuarial accrued liability was $124.2 billion; the TRS fund was at $45.3 billion, which meant we had an unfunded actuarial liability of $71.4 billion and were funded at 36.5%.  An estimate today for the TRS fund is approximately $48 billion or at 38.6%...  Under existing law, statutorily-required general funds pension contributions grew to $6.9 billion in FY2017 from $1.6 billion in FY2008.  Debt service on previously issued bonds increased to $1.6 billion from $467 million during the same period, bringing total pension-related payments to $8.5 billion from $2.1 billion.  The total state contribution to pensions is just over 25% of all that it takes in for the fiscal year.